Supreme Court upholds recusal rule

The Washington Post reports:

Ethics laws that require a legislator to abstain from voting when there is a potential conflict of interest are as old as the union, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, and do not violate the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.

The court’s unanimous decision overturned a Nevada Supreme Court decision that said public officials’ votes were a form of constitutionally protected self-expression. In an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court said laws requiring legislators to recuse themselves from voting on issues in which they have an interest “have been commonplace for over 200 years.”